LAURA DONKERS
UNITED KINGDOM, NEW ZEALAND
Wild Garden
2020
Mahoe charcoal, Japanese walnut ink on watercolour paper, 300gsm, 1500x10000mm
Why didn’t we understand that the wild was our garden? This work draws attention to the devastating contradiction of human impact on nature through our failure to comprehend the importance of all life to the continuation of our own lives. The intention of this work is to engage the viewer, through scale and proximity, with biodiversity loss. Using the technique of ‘subtractive charcoal drawing’, plant forms are drawn with an eraser into a soft charcoal ground. This work, executed entirely out-of-doors during the wet winter period, consequently bears details of climatic and biological interaction. The drawn marks indicate the ghost forms of plants, subliminally referencing the decline of rambunctious nature. By choosing to engage with the physical and visual presentation of this drawing, the viewer is confronted with the subject matter in an experience that challenges who we are, and asks what we aspire to becoming – planetary masters or planetary stewards?
This work references Sustainable Development Goal 15: Life on the Land which sets out goals for us to become planetary stewards who understand that human prosperity must go hand-in-hand with protecting the planet.
